Sermon
Jesus said, I Am The Bread Of Life (Part 2)
January 20, 2002
Pastor Donald Sheley

Take your Bible and together we're going to a passage, and I'm going to give you the introduction to next Sunday's sermon. You say, Pastor, you're doing that quite frequently. My situation is that I'm finding this chapter, chapter 6, intensely interesting. And you'll notice I'm just taking almost a word at a time, almost a phrase at a time, because when we finish this I want us to really understand this glorious truth that Christ has shared with us.

So we're in John chapter 6, and today we're going to commence with verse 30. And, just for you that join with us, our approach to the study of Scriptures is we just Sunday after Sunday go as far as we can in terms of time, and then we pick it up the following Sunday. We've been in this sixth chapter now for a number of weeks.

Here's the occasion; Christ has fed 5000 . A marvelous miracle. The result is that the crowd want to make Him King. He thwarts their enthusiasm, disperses the crowd, and sends His disciples back across the lake in their little boat. He then goes to the mountain to pray. A storm, of course, develops on the sea. Jesus looks out across the sea at three o'clock in the morning on the fourth watch. He sees them being tossed to and fro in the storm and so He walks on the sea to them. We talked about walking on the water a couple of weeks ago.

Now when they realize that Jesus is gone and He didn't take a boat. They didn't know how He got there. They wanted to find out where He went and so during the evening, probably during the storm, a number of boats from Tiberius, which was another little village along the lake, these fishermen were out in the sea and it got rough and so they probably brought their little vessels in to the harbor there were this little group was for the night. And the next morning the crowd that had followed Jesus got onto these little boots and headed over across the lake to Capernaum to find Jesus.

When they arrived there they say to Jesus, how did You get here? Now Jesus doesn't answer their question, but He gives them a reproof. He says, you don't seek Me because of the signs or for spiritual reasons. The reason why you came looking for Me is because you got your tummy filled. You sought Me for the loaves and the fishes, but what you really should be wanting is that food that lasts forever. And they answer back, Jesus, what does it take to please God? What are the works of God? What is it that will please Him?

And you'll notice that Jesus answers their question, verse 27, "Do not labor for food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." And of course they said to Him, but shall we do? Jesus answers, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." What really pleases God is that you put your trust in Jesus Christ, Messiah, as your Savior.

Remember last Sunday, their response was, all right because they understood with the word believe meant. It meant to absolutely commit, submit to obedience, to following their master, and they knew that belief was more than just words. They knew it was an action that demanded total commitment of them, and so here's their question; Jesus, if You want that kind of commitment, then show us a sign. Give us a reason to put our trust in You. Give us some credentials so we really can believe.

Now it's interesting that they've already, just a few hours ago, they'd been fed. They stood there when Jesus to that little handful of food, fish and bread, and multiplied it and made enough for 5000. That miracle wasn't enough because look at what they do. Verse 31; "Our fathers ate the manna in the desert"; as it is written, "He gave them bread from heaven to eat."

What they're saying is, Jesus, if You're as good as Moses, if You want us to really trust You, don't forget what Moses did. Moses provided food for 40 years - two meals a day - bread in the morning and quail for supper. And Jesus, he fed them for 40 years. You've only given us one meal.

Now we calculated it out last Sunday that when you have 2 million plus people out there in the wilderness and they each collect one omer, which is the equivalent of two quarts, and you take the weight of two quarts of liquid and when you multiply it out, it's 9 million pounds of food every day. That's 4500 tons of food for 40 years. If you put in boxcars, it takes 30 boxcars loaded with 15 tons each. Now Jesus, if You can do that, we'll believe in You. Moses did.

Now what I want to do today is many of our congregation are new in their faith and the Old Testament is an unlearned part of the Bible, so I want to take you back and tell you the story of manna. Will you go with me? We're going to go back in our Bible to the book of Exodus. It's page 49 in your red pew Bible, and we're going to find out when they say, Moses gave us manna, what about this manna? What is it? What so unique about it?

Well, Exodus 16:1 says: And they journeyed from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the Wilderness of Sin. Now let me just draw you a map here. We've got the Mediterranean Sea up here and we've got Egypt here, and we've got the Sinai peninsula that comes down this way, and we've got the Gulf of Aqaba over here. They've crossed from Egypt across the Red Sea and they're following down the coastline, and they come to an area which is known as the Wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they departed from the land of Egypt. So they've been out of Egypt for about 30 days.

And when you travel that wilderness, they're eating up their flocks, they're discontinuing their source of food, and all of a sudden it says the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron. Now Aaron is the high priest. Moses is their leader in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." Boy, that's a complaint. That's an accusation.

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not. And it shall be on the sixth day that they shall prepare what they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily." Now they're preparing for the Sabbath so you need the day before Sabbath twice as much.

Then Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, "At evening you shall know that the Lord has brought you out of the land of Egypt. And in the morning you shall see the glory of the Lord; for He hears your complaints against the Lord. But what are we, that you complain against us?"

Moses said, "This shall be seen when the Lord gives you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to the full; for the Lord hears your complaints which you make against Him. And what are we? Your complaints are not against us but against the Lord." And Moses spoke to Aaron, "Say to all the congregation of the children of Israel, 'Come near before the Lord, for He has heard your complaints.'"

Now it came to pass, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, "I have heard the complaints of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At twilight you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God.'"

So it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness (that's on the ground), was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, "What is it?" For the did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, "This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat."

We call it manna, but if we were speaking Hebrew this morning, when you say, 'what is it?' you say manna, manna, manna. That means, what is it? So these folks ate 'what is it' for 40 years. (Congregation chuckles)

Now this is the thing which the Lord has commanded: Let every man gather it according to each one's need, one omer (that's about two quarts), one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent. Then the children of Israel did so and gathered, some more, and some less. So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. That's interesting, isn't it?

Every man had gathered according to each one's need. And Moses said, "Let no one leave any of it till morning." In other words when the last meal is over you destroy the remains. Notwithstanding the did not heed Moses, and some of them left part of the until morning, and it bred worms and it stank. No preservatives in that food. And Moses was angry with them. So they gathered at every morning, every man according to his need. And when the sun became hot, it melted.

And so it was, on the sixth day, that they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one. And all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses. Then he said to them, "This is what the Lord has said: 'Tomorrow is a Sabbath rest, a holy Sabbath to the Lord. Bake what you will bake today, and boil what you will boil; and lay up for yourselves all that remains, to be kept until morning.'" In other words, there's no preparation on the Sabbath. Prepare on the day before. I was raised in a home where my mother didn't cook on Sunday. She cooked Sunday meals on Saturday just like here.

So they laid it up till morning, as Moses commanded; and it did not stink, nor were there any worms in it. Then Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to the Lord; today you will not find it in the field. Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day, the Sabbath, there will be none."

Now it happened that some of the folks didn't believe that so they went out on the seventh day to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, "How long do you refused to keep My commandments and My laws? See! The Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore He gives you on the sixth day bread for two days. Let every man remain in his place; let no man go out of his place on the seventh day." So the people rested on the seventh day.

Now, the house of Israel called its name Manna. What is it? It's like white coriander seed, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. Then Moses said, "This is the thing which the Lord has commanded: 'Fill an omer with it, to be kept for your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.'" And Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot and put an omer of manna in it, and lay it up before the Lord, to be kept for your generations." As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

What they had in the center of worship was known as the Ark of the Covenant, a little box, but it was the center of their worship. In that box was placed Aaron's rod that budded, too small tablets of the commandments, and a pot of manna. And into that sacred box went this reminder of God's keeping power, as a reminder to generations to come. And it says, and the children of Israel ate manna 40 years, until they came to an inhabited land; they ate manna until they came to the border of the land of Canaan. Now an omer is one-tenth of an ephah.

Now let's move over to page 101, to Numbers. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers; so it's the fourth book in the Old Testament part of our Bible. It's page 101 if you're following along in the red book. And here's some more very fascinating information about this manna. Look at what it says, verse 4. Now the mixed multitude... Now again, if we were reading Hebrew, what it implies is that in that nation there were some godly people, but there were a lot of godless people. They were a mixed multitude. They weren't all believers in Jehovah.

And it says that they among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: "Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leaks, the onions, and the garlic; but now our whole being is dried up; there's nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!" Now the manna was like coriander seed, and its color like the color of bdellium. The people went about and gathered it, ground it on millstones or beat it in the mortar, cooked it in pans, and made cakes of it; and its taste was like the taste of pastry prepared with oil. That's interesting. And when the dew fell on the camp in the night, the manna fell. I mean, when they finished it tasted like Svenhart's pastries. Now, there's one other. That's a pretty good meal for 40 years.

Go with me to Joshua chapter 5. It's page 152 in your Bible. And Joshua is going to finish the history of manna. Look at Joshua 5:9, Then the Lord said to Joshua, "This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." In other words, the wilderness is behind us; we've crossed the Jordan; the walls of Jericho are down, so let's celebrate. We've arrived! And those 40 years of journeying is behind us, and what we'll do is we'll call this place Gilgal. Now the children of Israel camped in Gilgal, and kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month at twilight.

That's a beautiful scene, isn't it? On the plains of Jericho. And they ate the produce of the land on the day after the Passover, unleavened bread and parched grain, on the very same day. Then the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten the produce of the land; and the children of Israel no longer had manna, but they ate the food of the land of Canaan that year. So now we know the story. Let's go back to our text in John.

Now you can see why they say Moses gave us this manna and he fed us for 40 years, can't You at least give us lunch again? And you'll notice the answer that Jesus gives them. Jesus said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not give you the bread from heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

Then they said to Him, "Lord, give us this bread always." And Jesus said to them, "I am, I am, I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. Now that's the backdrop for our lesson next Lord's Day. And let me just gives you one of the first points, what Jesus is saying, now if you're standing there and you've got this Jewish mind and you remember the story of the manna and all those things we've just read about, and here's this Galilean peasant standing there saying, I am the bread of God. I am the true bread. I am the living bread. I am the bread from heaven. What are they thinking about?

Well, if you take the story of the manna of the Old Testament and the manna in terms as it relates to Christ, there are some beautiful similarities. Let me show you. Number one, where did the first manna come? To the Wilderness of Sin. Where did the second manna come? To a world filled with Sin. A world that rejected Him, a world that hated. A world that was like a wilderness. In a wilderness you don't have habitations.

And here Jesus comes to a world where they don't even have a place for Him to be born. They put Him in a cow stall. He has nowhere to lay His head. The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but He has nowhere to lay His head. And when they get ready to bury Him they have to borrow somebody else's tomb. He came to a wilderness, and He came here because He loves us.

Did you notice in that story that Moses said, when the manna comes we're going to see the glory of God? Did you see that? And when you study back through the Scripture, this is the first time in the Scriptures where God evidences His glory in such manifest, wonderful presentation. They look across the wilderness and here's this mighty manifestation of the glory of God. It's the day when the manna arrives, the glory of God appears in the skies.

When you read of the man of heaven, the person of Jesus Christ, what happens? The skies are a blaze with the glory of God and the hosts of heaven are saying, glory to God in the highest and on Earth peace goodwill toward man. He comes in glory. And John writes the word became flesh and dwelt. That's an interesting word. The little word dwelt means to tabernacle, to have a tent of flesh and live amongst us in His tent of flesh. He tabernacled among us. John said we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father.

What I want to do, the Lord willing, if Jesus tarries, I want to take you back through the Old Testament story and I want to show you the beautiful parallel. So you'll understand when that Jewish person is standing there in their crowd, He, He is the one that came to us as the manna in the wilderness in our time of deepest need, and when He came, we missed the glory of His coming. We'll talk about it next week. Okay?

Father, Your word is precious. We take time to try to understand so we don't move too fast because it's so rich with eternal truth. Jesus, when our hearts reached out, and the emptiness in our sin, You imparted Your grace and Your mercy and Your love to us. You filled us with Your presence. And You, Oh bread of God, met our spiritual need and we search no longer. We have found our fulfillment in You, Oh bread of God.

It's true that You promised when we put our trust in You we'll never hunger again. We've found that to be true Lord Jesus. Thank you for being our heavenly manna, the answer to our spiritual quest. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. God bless you.